The Original Bamfer
Big, Bald and Beautiful
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The Official Rate and Review Thread
- Thread starter DorkyFresh
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hippie_hunter
The King is Back!
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I expected a bad movie with CINO, but I still ended up leaving the theater angry. At least with DragonBall: Evolution, I managed to get some laughs by Grandpa's dying face and Chatwin screaming KAME! HAME! HA!
godolphins1985
Civilian
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no one ever answered, did anyone watch the scene after credits?
godolphins1985
Civilian
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Warhammer
Half Monk, Half Hitman
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The best part of this movie was also the most unintentionally funny moment. It was when Piccolo just rolls all up in Gohan's house. Hood up, head down, shoulders back, all together with Piccolo walking a b-line in Gohan's house. It was hilarious.
Spade
Seeking new challengers
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I'm trying- with difficulty- to think of a film that left me this frustrated after the credits started rolling. I have a bias in that I was a moderator over a Dragon Ball forum for a few years before signing up here and own almost all of the tankobans (manga volumes). So if you said I'm using hyperbole here, you might not be far from the truth. But I'm coming up blank for the moment. At least with Spider-Man 3, there was an attempt to break new ground in cinema, albeit in minor ways. This was creatively bankrupt on almost every level. I don't have anything against the crew. I'm sure they're all well-meaning, positive people in their professional lives. That said, it's still creatively bankrupt. It would've been satisfying to see a great film that treated the source material with a respect few afford this series, rather than the cliche-ridden failure to launch I came out of an hour ago. Even a flawed film with the crime of being overambitious would've been preferable. I could go into specifics, but why give effort to this in any fashion when the filmmakers didn't have the courtesy to?
1/10, and that's not just the frustration speaking. There's literally no respectable reason why "Dragonball Evolution" should have made it past a first draft, if that. I don't care what the budget was. It still wouldn't be worth watching even if the SFX companies had more to work with. You don't get good fruit from a tree with rotten roots.
1/10, and that's not just the frustration speaking. There's literally no respectable reason why "Dragonball Evolution" should have made it past a first draft, if that. I don't care what the budget was. It still wouldn't be worth watching even if the SFX companies had more to work with. You don't get good fruit from a tree with rotten roots.
To be honest, I didnt hate it. I actually kind of enjoyed it. With the exception of the special effects, which needed to be redone in the worst kind of way, almost all of the movies issues just came from it being too short. I think if it was made into a standard 2 hour summer movie then it wouldve been a lot better. That way maybe Piccolo could have more than 10 lines and they could actually explain how he escaped.
Warhammer
Half Monk, Half Hitman
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With all films adapted from a previous work rather it be novel, short story, or comic book, I view it as an adaptation because that is what it is. There will be changes to the absolute degree and there is no going around that fact. Translation from literature to film always never turns out as a carbon copy.
With that said, that is how I viewed Dragonball: Evolution. Where to begin? Well, the film overall was much better than I expected...it wasn't abysmal or "so bad, it is good." But the movie was just plain bad. As a Dragon Ball fan, maybe I could have ripped the movie to shreds, but even if I chose to, I wouldn't have had to. The movie had an underdeveloped story, no character development in any of the characters, crappy dialogue, and just didn't have the oomph to be considered a big budget action film. It was all over the place and was sloppy and lacked a real direction. Everything lacked creativity and true originality.
As a Dragon Ball fan, I am disappointed because this film should have been the epic film we've been waiting for. All of these years of waiting and realizing that all of this movie magic we have today could recapture the lore of Dragon Ball was in vain. As a legitimate critic, the movie was just plain bad. Not as bad as I was expected (abysmal), but still bad.
A plus was Emmy Rossum, though. I thought she nailed Bulma enough to still be considered Bulma in essence (given her screen time and whatever amount of development she could get)...and she was fine as hell, too.
Rating:
- 2 out of 4 stars
With that said, that is how I viewed Dragonball: Evolution. Where to begin? Well, the film overall was much better than I expected...it wasn't abysmal or "so bad, it is good." But the movie was just plain bad. As a Dragon Ball fan, maybe I could have ripped the movie to shreds, but even if I chose to, I wouldn't have had to. The movie had an underdeveloped story, no character development in any of the characters, crappy dialogue, and just didn't have the oomph to be considered a big budget action film. It was all over the place and was sloppy and lacked a real direction. Everything lacked creativity and true originality.
As a Dragon Ball fan, I am disappointed because this film should have been the epic film we've been waiting for. All of these years of waiting and realizing that all of this movie magic we have today could recapture the lore of Dragon Ball was in vain. As a legitimate critic, the movie was just plain bad. Not as bad as I was expected (abysmal), but still bad.
A plus was Emmy Rossum, though. I thought she nailed Bulma enough to still be considered Bulma in essence (given her screen time and whatever amount of development she could get)...and she was fine as hell, too.
Rating:
- 2 out of 4 stars
spideyboy_1111
Young Avenger
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I guess the difference for me is Catwoman didn't even try to be catwoman... so if failed "in name only" and honestly was never a "let down" this movie let down alot of fans from the begining
Lunar_Wolf
WTF face
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Review from my site-www.filmspunk.com
As opening day came closer, I started thinking that Dragonball may be terrible from the sounds of it, but maybe there might be some entertainment value to it, like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter(Jean-Caude Van Damme version). Unfortunately, there wasn't any redeeming qualities what so ever. This so called ''Dragonball'' film was worse than I ever expected. I lowered my expectations so low and even at that I was still disappointed.
GOOD
James Marsters as Piccolo was the only thing I really enjoyed about Dragonball. Marsters looked great in the green make-up and pointy ears. The character wasn't on screen for long, but when he was, things didn't seem all too bad. You could tell from interviews, that Marsters was very passionate about Dragonball. It's just a shame that the studio didn't share that passion.
Emmy Rossum was another person who did a good job for what she had to work with in my eyes. But like Piccolo, she only got to shine in one or two scenes. That's the thing, it wasn't that the actors were miscast(besides Joon Park), it was the piss poor script that felt rushed.
I liked the one or two shots you could see of Oozaru when he wasn't hiding in the dark, but even at that, the camera was shaking all over the place. I'm a sucker for transformations-from human to beast.
BAD
The film begins with an 18 year old Goku who training with his Grandpa Gohan. This is not how it went down in the Manga right? Dragonball was about Goku as a young boy, not a teenager, and his Grandpa was already dead. But you know what? This didn't bother me one bit. Having a kid playing Goku throughout this whole film would have annoyed me. Gohan dying by hands of Piccolo gave Goku motivation to take this evil Namek down. Somethings don't work in live action and sometimes you got to change things but still hold the spirit of the source material at the same time. That being said, at least 20 minutes of the film should have revolved around a young Goku getting up to all sorts of adventures with his Grandpa. This way you would get some kid Goku in there and at the same time you'd be building a relationship between Goku and Gohan. But instead, they spend 20 Minutes with Goku hanging out in school, getting bullied and going to lame parties. I hated Goku in this film, he pissed me off, he was everything that Goku was not. Goku in the Manga/Anime was a playful, humble, but was very confident in himself and took things serious when he needed to be. In this film, Goku is boring, very monotone and plays off as a poor mans Peter Parker.
The whole film felt like I was watching it on DVD and someone was hitting the skip scenes button on a remote. For example one scene just suddenly jumps to a material arts tournament where Chi Chi is fighting Mai(works for Piccolo. Again, there is not explanation why she is), where hell this scene come from? There is no more mention of the tournament again. The whole film is like that, it just throws things at you without any explanation.
For a film that's about martial arts, there is no good fighting scenes. Some of the fights are done in almost complete darkness. The last fight scene lasted maybe 5 Minutes. The final battle should have been an epic one. It's Goku taking on Piccolo, the alien responsible for his Grandpa's death, but instead you get some energy beams tossed each others way and a little tussle in the air for a few seconds. It was dreadful.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is the finest example of piss poor film making. Give this one a skip, even if you are a Dragonball fan, save yourself the headache, don't go.
Overall I give Dragonball Evolution-2/10
As opening day came closer, I started thinking that Dragonball may be terrible from the sounds of it, but maybe there might be some entertainment value to it, like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter(Jean-Caude Van Damme version). Unfortunately, there wasn't any redeeming qualities what so ever. This so called ''Dragonball'' film was worse than I ever expected. I lowered my expectations so low and even at that I was still disappointed.
GOOD
James Marsters as Piccolo was the only thing I really enjoyed about Dragonball. Marsters looked great in the green make-up and pointy ears. The character wasn't on screen for long, but when he was, things didn't seem all too bad. You could tell from interviews, that Marsters was very passionate about Dragonball. It's just a shame that the studio didn't share that passion.
Emmy Rossum was another person who did a good job for what she had to work with in my eyes. But like Piccolo, she only got to shine in one or two scenes. That's the thing, it wasn't that the actors were miscast(besides Joon Park), it was the piss poor script that felt rushed.
I liked the one or two shots you could see of Oozaru when he wasn't hiding in the dark, but even at that, the camera was shaking all over the place. I'm a sucker for transformations-from human to beast.
BAD
The film begins with an 18 year old Goku who training with his Grandpa Gohan. This is not how it went down in the Manga right? Dragonball was about Goku as a young boy, not a teenager, and his Grandpa was already dead. But you know what? This didn't bother me one bit. Having a kid playing Goku throughout this whole film would have annoyed me. Gohan dying by hands of Piccolo gave Goku motivation to take this evil Namek down. Somethings don't work in live action and sometimes you got to change things but still hold the spirit of the source material at the same time. That being said, at least 20 minutes of the film should have revolved around a young Goku getting up to all sorts of adventures with his Grandpa. This way you would get some kid Goku in there and at the same time you'd be building a relationship between Goku and Gohan. But instead, they spend 20 Minutes with Goku hanging out in school, getting bullied and going to lame parties. I hated Goku in this film, he pissed me off, he was everything that Goku was not. Goku in the Manga/Anime was a playful, humble, but was very confident in himself and took things serious when he needed to be. In this film, Goku is boring, very monotone and plays off as a poor mans Peter Parker.
The whole film felt like I was watching it on DVD and someone was hitting the skip scenes button on a remote. For example one scene just suddenly jumps to a material arts tournament where Chi Chi is fighting Mai(works for Piccolo. Again, there is not explanation why she is), where hell this scene come from? There is no more mention of the tournament again. The whole film is like that, it just throws things at you without any explanation.
For a film that's about martial arts, there is no good fighting scenes. Some of the fights are done in almost complete darkness. The last fight scene lasted maybe 5 Minutes. The final battle should have been an epic one. It's Goku taking on Piccolo, the alien responsible for his Grandpa's death, but instead you get some energy beams tossed each others way and a little tussle in the air for a few seconds. It was dreadful.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is the finest example of piss poor film making. Give this one a skip, even if you are a Dragonball fan, save yourself the headache, don't go.
Overall I give Dragonball Evolution-2/10
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They didn't use energy beams they used "Airbending" like in Avatar the Last Airbender. That was how they described it. And the fights scenes in Observe and Report were ten times better and longer. Thats sad.
Negrotigre
Civilian
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How could the main villian have so rew lines and little screentime? What were they thinking?
Lunar_Wolf
WTF face
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I gave the movie a 5/10 last night after seeing it. After sleeping on it, I want to change that to maybe a 2-3.
I gave it a 3, but after sleeping on it also and having some nightmares, I pushed it to a 2.
Does this mean you won't be continuing on with you site or you still going on with the DB sequel news?
xwolverine2
Arkham Assassin
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or following avatar(tla) news lol
Lunar_Wolf
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Hope the film gets remade in a few years by Asia Cinema. A lot of films from places like Japan are over the top crazy, but they work.
Lunar_Wolf
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The shot I liked in the trailer where they city was being destroyed was never in the film or did I just not see it because I didn't pay attention?
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